OLTL and GH: Watching Sadism for Thrills; Soaps Are Not Snuff Films

[marlenadlc]

http://www.marlenadelacroix.com

[Darn]

How was Stacy not a criminal? She stole bone marrow and threatened to let a child die because she wanted a man. Having a child doesn't automatically make you exempt from death.

Anyway, I can't comment on Claudia as I don't watch that show but Stacy needed to go, anyway possible. I suppose we should just be thankful they didn't kill her while pregnant. The character was one of the haphazardly badly written characters in daytime history. The actress was NOT the problem, the character, the story, the sheer stupidity of everyone involved was the problem.

I don't know, this article seems to come at a weird time. I can't recall a few years ago with several soaps all having serial killer storylines going on at the same time. THAT was weird as hell to me and downright unwatchable, these two deaths in comparison to those brutal weekly deaths are nothing.

[Vee]

Stacy did [!@#$%^&*] deserve it.

I have a lot of issues with ABC's misogyny but as far as Stacy goes, they could have killed her eight different ways and I would have gobbled it up.

The Claudia story I didn't mind in concept - the problem was that, while on another show it would've been courageous to show the mob doing exactly what the mob does, killing an enemy and disposing of them in the ugliest way possible, on GH it was just another nasty, violent act, and they really seemed to revel in getting to do something premium cable-esque. And nothing about what happened to Claudia is really supposed to reflect badly on Sonny or Jason. They mouth platitudes about how "this life is bad for the kids" but in the end, they will get away with it.

[DRW50]

I think what was done to Jessica was more sadistic than the Stacy stuff. That and Tarty are the most vile anti-woman stories I've seen on OLTL in a long time. *

*I skipped most of the Higley years.

[Leia]

Stacy was a criminal. She drugged two men. She stole. She wasn't just a criminal. She was evil and an insult to women. The more I read the more I realize that the soap world is really a strange place. In this world, minority characters are treated like expendable members of hired help and the death of an awful character is a tragic loss which calls for commentary.

[marceline]

I agree with you on the skewed priorities of the soap press. But the impression I got from Marlena's column isn't so much disappointment at the death of these characters but the gleeful violence that the shows use to get rid of them. I'm not saying I agree or disagree (and her column did make me check out the clips of Stacy's demise) but I can see her point. Personally I think watching characters like Stacy be publicly pilloried then run out of town is actually more satisfying than a quick snuffing out. Plus when you add ABC's textbook pimping of characters like Todd or Sonny, it can easily be too much.

[Vee]

I think GH luxuriated in Claudia's demise, and OLTL has in the past with several other women that have been degraded (including Marty in the last couple years), but I don't think Stacy went down like that. Her death was frankly too quick and understated for me. It wasn't like the Grace Davidson Deathwatch Week - Grace also died by drowning, and her struggle and slow, painful death complete with blue-lipped hypothermic ghost went on for at least a week.

[DRW50]

Grace's death felt like JFP punishing fans for not taking to Grace, or the "Rappa-Davisons."

Gabrielle and the toilet I'd count as more unpleasant than Stacy's death.

[Vee]

Well, Jill ended up saying, "we never meant for you to feel for Grace, it was all about Kevin and Kelly's emotions." And Ben's and Rae's - that whole story was yet another showcase for Linda Dano and Tim Gibbs.

[Ann_SS]

I agree with Marlena's underlying point which is that there is a glee, misogyny and exploitation in how these female characters are killed. It happens far more often when women are killed off more than men. It is like the writers get off on showing every second of terror that the woman experiences in the death/murder. Phelps is famous for it, but it isn't limited to her. I couldn't stand Grace or Jenn Rappaport and was thrilled that they were going away, but the way they were killed was sickening. Wacking Claudia in the head with an axe handle was straight out of a slasher B movie.

Next I suggest that Marlena write a column about how black characters are being discriminated against in Daytime.

[Vee]

I adored the way Jen died. I hated her so fuckin' much. And I thought it was well done, unfortunately the overall story was terrible and incredibly offensive.

[SFK]

The best thing about Jen's death was the revelation that JPL can really act, when he applies himself.

[EricMontreal22]

Agreed. I don't quite get why Stacy is singled out over what happened to Jessica, etc... She fell through ice, no body was found, the end. No man attacking her, etc.

Ann--I get your point. Obviously misogyny is as bad as ever now. I wonder though--is it much worse than it ever was on soaps in the past (besides the fact that they can get away with showing more on screen than before). We had serial killers killing women who "sinned" as far back as the early 80s, the 60s and 70s were infamous for punishing the female characters who had sex, etc. This doesn't make it any better, but sometimes I wonder if, overall, the misogyny seen on soaps is all that more worse than it ever was (OK soaps produced by JFP aside). It's true that female characters have been the ones to suffer the most in death, but I think this has always been true, and if anything was more so in the 60s and 50s when they didn't focus on male characters much at all--at least nnot in that way. That's partly cuz they perceive the audience as female so think that they'll relate or connect (in whatever way) most to them than to the guys.

[DRW50]

The biggest difference between then and now is I think back then the women had a point of view. When I watch soaps from the 60s I get to hear these women sit and talk, and I can understand why they are doing what they're doing, even if it's stupid.

Today it's all about men and what men think and feel. The women are an afterthought. They live and die for men. We get endless scenes of Todd and his pain, Rex and his pain, John and his emoness. I guess we get a lot of Tea too, but Tea is an endless ode to misogyny and wife-battering so I lump her in with a man's point of view. And this is even worse on GH, with Jason, Sonny, Lucky.

Women also used to go to work and used to have drive.

Now women on soaps often just seem to be written from the POV of a dirty old man. Like Sharon on Y&R.

[Vee]

I think some shows have snatches of female perspective. OLTL was much better about this before the strike, and before Tarty; it still has some here and there, but they're all male-dominated in many ways. That goes back to the networks, and to the executives involved, both male and female. Barbara Bloom is just as misogynistic as Brian Frons. In most cases I think this is learned behavior on the part of the networks; they think something male-driven will work because of some prior example on daytime past, or primetime.